Gilded Age

The "Gilded Age" was an era of pre-World War I America lasting from around 1870 to 1914, a time when America was going through industrialization and its less-great side effects while being gilded on the outside. During this time, groups like the Knights of Labor and International Workers' Union rose up in America, and unions began to form.

Background
Following the American Civil War's end in 1865, the United States began to move west and began a process of industrialization. Railroads began to be built, and industry was booming. The government became very rich, but the people did not get to share the riches. An Italian immigrant said, "(When I was coming to America) I thought that America's streets were paved with gold. However, it turned out that the streets weren't paved with gold, they weren't paved, and we (the immigrants) were expected to pave them". The so-called "Gilded Age" came from an 1873 Mark Twain novel that satirized greed and political corruption after the Civil War's end, and during this time, immigrants and even US workers suffered.

Immigration
During this time, several immigrants began to come to America due to various issues such as religious/ethnic/cultural persecution, the lack of money, or to live on their own land. Immigrants were treated poorly, with slurs like NINA ("No Irish Need Apply", a phrase placed on the windows of shops that were not hiring Irish workers) and WOP ("Without Papers") being thrown around at the Irish and Italian immigrants, respectively. Immigrants had to live in tenements, and Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant photographer and "muckraker", documented the poor living conditions. He said that the people in the tenements had to hang out their "perennial rags" for washing, and changes of clothing were scarce. Tenements smelled awful, and the temperature was around 105 degrees Fahrenheit on some occasions. However, some immigrants gained jobs such as Scandinavian or East Asian immigrants that helped to build the railroads West. On 6 May 1882 President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act in hopes of limiting Chinese immigration, the first act to prevent a specific group from immigrating to America (it would only be repelled in 1943). In 1907, the Gentlemen's Agreement between America and the Empire of Japan lowered restrictions on Japanese immigrants but forbade further emigration from Japan, another example of xenophobia. The Immigration Act of 1924 solved most of these issues, but racism and xenophobia continue today.

Workers
Average American laborers also suffered during this age. They were often given 24-hour work days with only weekends off, and the pay was unfair. Several strikes were broken up either by Pinkerton Agency hired detectives or failed due to scabs going to work, and laborers failed to unionize many times. However, the Knights of Labor, American Federation of Labor, and Industrial Workers of the World were founded, with Samuel Gompers and Eugene V. Debs being major leaders. The 1894 Pullman Strike, instigated by Debs, was crashed when Grover Cleveland sent in the US Army and killed 30 workers and wounded 57. Workers' rights was a major issue of the times, and by the 1910s America had several unions and labor reforms.